Margaret Ethel Burdeny

Margaret McDole grew up in Sanford on the family farm with her two younger sisters, Heather and Judy Anne. She was heavily involved in community activates including, 4H, curling, the United Church, and CGITs. Once the crops were in, the family would head off to exotic locations like Detroit Lakes MN, and Rabbit Lake ON for fun times playing in the water. Margaret studied the piano and maintained a love for music her entire life. Her membership in the Sunny Stitchers Sewing club, and the red ribbons for baking she would bring home from the community fair, were precursors for her life to come.

In 1955 Margaret started her studies at University of Manitoba. After classes she maintained a very active social life attending sporting events, formal parties, and dinner outings. Accompanying her on these outing would be a skinny kid from Ethelbert MB, Donald Burdeny. Margaret had summer employment outside of Winnipeg but the romance with Don would continue the following fall.

Our two fresh University graduates were married on June 6, 1959. On the day of their wedding, Don sent his bride to be a dozen red roses, and maintained this tradition each year on their anniversary. Margaret obtained her teaching certificate in Home Economics, but paused her career to have Kathy in 1961 and James in 1963. In 1966 she started teaching at Sansome Junior High, officially becoming a working mom.

In 1969 life took another turn when David arrived on the scene with Michael to follow in 1971. Margaret developed an interest in antiques and spent many weekends attending auctions, rummaging around abandoned buildings, and digging in the Beausejour glass factory. To keep life interesting, Don and Margaret ventured into real-estate, buying houses and flipping them for a profit. For a brief time they even owned an apartment building.

When the 1980s hit, real-estate became a bad investment, so Margaret began her next career as the owner of an Osborne Village gift shop, the C´est Si Bon. Their interest progressed towards boating, and summer months were spent aboard ship, doing lots of cleaning, and the occasional charter to help pay the bills. Semi-retirement started when they purchased their place in Belair MB. The small town atmosphere allowed for lots of socializing and time for Margaret to rediscover gardening. The lake was a great place for children and grandchildren to rediscover the slower paced couple.

After Don’s death, Margaret moved to Fort Garry to be close to her sisters, children, grandchildren; Jared, Alison, Asher, Cecilia, and Theo; and her great grandson, Aadyn.

This is a very short version of the very full life Margaret lived, and would be a small novel if we started adding details.